


Importance

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Prison Break
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 15:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10574568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: Lincoln pumps Michael for information.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written from a prompt of “a convo between Michael and Lincoln about Sara before or after meeting up with her at the train station” during 2x16 Chicago episode.

Evansville, Indiana is like any other Midwest city. In fact, as I stand just outside the train station building, keeping one eye on my brother and another on our partner in crime I can’t help but think this could be Chicago, and I could be home. But we’ll never be able to go home, not really. Unless Michael’s right and whatever Sara has is going to lead us to something concrete.  
  
Easing the baseball cap I’m wearing down an inch or so, I tip my head back and eye Kellerman, who opted to stand all the way down at the other end of the building. We both know that whatever he really did to Sara he didn’t tell us. But we’ll deal with that when we have to.  
  
“Just so we’re clear,” I say, my voice is low but able to reach Michael’s ears easy enough, “how important is she to you?”  
  
Michael’s been staring out into the space the train will fill once it pulls into the station, but his eyes narrow and dart in my direction as he jerks his head towards me. “What do you mean?” he asks.  
  
“I mean, is  _she_  important, or is  _what she’s got_  important?” I’m remembering the moment where my brother kicked a man in the head for implying he’d used the Doc. Granted, Bellick deserved to be kicked until he stopped breathing, but Michael didn’t generally resort to my type of behavior. There was also this well of silence between us when we got in the car and drove away from that place, and that wasn’t just because Michael’s wife thought a few million bucks might make her feel better about him having used her repeatedly.  
  
Now, he takes his time responding, his head moving back to its original position, as if he can will the train to be on time. “What she has is important,” he says clearly. “What she has will set you free—at least I hope so.” He sighs heavily while removing his hands from his pockets to tug at the edges of the beanie over his ears. He’d snagged it from a gas station mini-mart earlier that morning, but he hadn’t paid for it. Little things like that kept creeping up and showing me that the brother I’ve always known is changing bit by bit because of the craziness that our lives have become.  
  
I don’t say anything, because I know he’s not finished, though he looks as though he’s trying hard not to say his next words. “I don’t want her to get hurt—anymore than she’s already been hurt.”  
  
This time he clamps himself down, I see the muscle in his jaw flex and then he says nothing. As if what he’s just said even answered my question. “Yeah, Mike,” I say with some irritation, “we’re not gonna let Kellerman do anything to her, that’s a no-brainer. But I still need to know what our game plan is for her. We’re gonna dump  _him_  the minute we get the chance. Is she going all the way with us, or what?”  
  
Michael examines his hands now, his long fingers pressing against each other in perfect alignment while he struggles for words. “If she wants to, yes.”  
  
“Because you want her to, too?” I ask. I’d really like to reach out and grab him by the scruff of the neck and shake him. Michael’s never worn his heart on his sleeve, but his evasiveness is starting to piss me off.  
  
“Yes!” he hisses at me, turning to look at me. “Okay? God, Linc, what do you want me to say?”  
  
Glaring at him, I adjust the bill of my baseball cap again so I can see his eyes better. “I just want you to say  _something_ , you idiot. I’d rather not have another pink jogging suit pulling a gun out of my pants, if that’s all right with you.”  
  
His cheeks flush, and not because of the cool morning air hitting our faces. “It’s not like  _that_ ,” he says emphatically.  
  
Just as he’s about to turn away again, like maybe he thinks the conversation is really over now, I ask one more thing. “She’s like Vee, isn’t she?”  
  
His expression changes then, and it’s not anger sparking out at me anymore. Instead honest emotion floods his eyes, and he compresses his lips to hold in the feeling that thinking about her dead somewhere because of us causes. I know that’s what he’s doing because I do it all the time. “Yes,” he replies candidly. He knows I don’t mean that she’s like Veronica in looks or personality, but in value. In importance. She matters to him like Veronica mattered—still matters—to me.  
  
Just then I hear the train approaching, and his head turns back as the engine car comes into sight. “Okay. That’s what I needed to know,” I say.  
  
He looks at me again as the train comes to a stop. “We can’t let that happen to her,” he says.  
  
With a sharp nod and a glance over at Kellerman, I know that my brother and I are on the same page, at least as far as Sara Tancredi is concerned.  
  
As she climbs from the train and makes her way over to us, I watch the way she looks at him, and I know she’s on the same page too. I always liked the Doc; she was kind to me at Fox River, and good at her job. I never sat in the Infirmary and felt like she looked down her nose at me, or thought I didn’t deserve her care. The day before they were supposed to fry me the first time, she had been a bright light for me, with her soft hand wrapped around mine and a heartfelt promise to look after Michael when I was gone. Now I can see that she agreed to that for her sake as much as his, and it only makes me like her more.  
  
To protect someone your brother cares about is second nature—in most cases you just do it because your habit is to protect him at all costs, in whatever way he needs protecting. To protect someone who cares about him in return is a different and better prospect. There hasn’t been enough of this in Michael’s life, and the soft look on her face as she steps forward to hug him makes me sure she will be worth it.


End file.
